Always Little Cassie
by CastielAnAngelOfTheLord
Summary: Sure, angels are a great big bag of dicks. And they are known for separating their emotions from themselves so they aren't held back by "humanity". Not all angels are heartless though, and it takes one problems to bring out the emotion in family.
1. Chapter 1

Pain.  
White and hot it constricted and crawled under his skin leaving unrelenting agony in its wake. The last thing he remembered was being attacked, jumped by a group of demons. They shouldn't have been a problem, they just shouldn't...  
But they had been strong, fast, unrelenting.  
And... The pain!

They were still stalking around him, anger crossed their faces as they stared down at the person laying in a puddle of blood as it slowly spread outwards, leaking into cracks on the floor and dripping silently down onto the cement underlay. The confines of the reinforced walls of the warehouse gave the demons the liberty to do whatever they liked; no one would hear his screams, that's if he had the energy to make them. A strangled moan escaped the ragged figure as he tried to rise from where he lay, only to be kicked back down by a demon.  
The feeling of splintered glass pelted through his chest.  
Broken rib... Defiantly broken.

The taste of copper rose on his throat, mixing with the bile to create a horrible burning liquid that stung his insides and eventually came up to mix with the circle of blood on the floor.  
"I heard you were invincible." One of the demons taunted, he seemed to be wearing a early 20 year old guy, blond hair stuck up in unusual angles and spotted with flecks of crimson red that could only be blood. He had a leather jacket that had numerous holes in it from the fight that landed them in this situation.

Another demon, a girl, walked over and yanked the hunter up by the hair. Sharp nails carving bloodied lines into his face. She looked young, no more than 16... Poor girl.  
"We should kill you right now." She said in a clipped voice, face uncomfortably close.  
She drew an angel blade out of seemingly thin air and held it against his neck.  
"Say goodbye." She cooed.

Then lights exploded out of her eyes.

A hand was clamped over the back of her head, grace pumping into her body, purifying her. Smiting her. Bones flashed under her skin as the meatsuit fell rigid to the floor.  
The second demon went down just as easily. Lights bright. Screams loud, satisfyingly loud.  
It was going well.  
Untill the angel blade was stabbed into his side.  
"Castiel!" Came the frantic voice of Gabriel as he looked on at the demon that had sheathed the blade into younger brother.  
Everything suddenly got a bit darker as the fog started to shroud his vision. There would be white lights flashing everywhere as the last of the demons were smote, and the comforting but worrying blue light that flowed from the new wound the angel blade had created.  
Cas tried to focus on his brother who disappeared and reappeared in different places, eventually dragging the demon that was responsible for Cas' pain away and felling them as well.

A light flap of wings was heard as Gabriel appeared by his side and immediately inspected his body for the wounds that were hard to miss.  
"Cassie! Talk to me, buddy, I need to know you're okay!" Gabe managed as each word hitched in his throat.  
Cas' body was riddled with injuries, knife gashes to the torso and one running from the base of his chin and up through his left eye, leaving him partially blind.

Bruises painted his face and skin shielded his internal injuries.  
Fractured skull which would have killed a regular man, crushed ribs which punctured his lungs and left him struggling for breath and ripped tendons and muscles which left his right arm hanging uselessly by his side.  
"Cassie! Castiel! Answer me you bitch!" Gabe shouted, but hopelessness shone wildly in his eyes as they came to rest on the angel blade.  
He secured his hand around the cold metal hilt and yanked it out. Blue light spilled forth from the open wound and tears pricked the edges of Cas' vision, that was the only pain reflex he had left.

Gabriel leaned over his brother and pulled him close, trying to find a place to put his hands that wouldn't result in more agony.  
"Cassie, listen to me, you'll be fine, one hundred percent, just hold on for a few more seconds." By the end of this, Gabe's voice had fell to a struggling whisper.

Gabe splayed his hand and placed it over the centre of Cas' chest. For a moment nothing happened, then a warm white light started to emerged from his hand. Slowly at first, it grew in power and a steady hum cascaded into the air as grace flowed from the elder brother and into the younger.  
"Don't move, Cassie. I'll have you healed up, dont worry." Was all he heard before the darkness fell in onto his sight and his consciousness slipped.


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriel knelt down beside his brother and used his legs to support his head, running a hand through his almost black hair that was stuck to his forehead in cold sweat. Cas had fallen unconscious and who could blame him? A stab wound from an angel blade was nothing short of agony. Even though Gabe knew his brother had been through much worse...  
Destroyed by Lucifer in a half assed attempt in averting the apocalypse, which had somehow worked. Gabe knew that when his body had been ripped apart fiber by fiber, atom by atom, Cas had felt it all. Every ounce of pain would have shot through his nerves and hit his brain within the nanosecond of his physical body being totally annihilated. Rumor even spread that he had been put back together by God; their father.  
Though Gabe didn't hold onto much hope with that idea.  
He hadn't believed it...  
But Gabe had evaded death numerous times, he really shouldn't be surprised.

Gabe watched as the physical wound healed as the grace brought together the ripped cells and blood vessels and made the body as good as new. Well, physically, that is.  
Angel blades cut into the very grace of an angel, this is what made it excruciating. And even after the healing had been done, these types of wounds left a lasting effect.

Gabe had always thought of it like a plate.  
You ask someone to drop a plate onto the floor and it breaks, usually.  
Then you gather up the pieces of the broken plate and glue and tape them back together. But no matter how hard you try, some pieces are too small to stick or to broken to fit and you discard them. Leaving an incomplete plate.  
Now think of it as grace. You keep hacking bits off or "breaking the plate" then more and more gets thrown away and eventually you're left with something you can barely recognise.

And in this context, Cas' "plate" had been dropped from such a height that Felix Baumgartner was jealous.  
Cas was a mess.

"Dont worry, Cassie." Gabe whispered to Cas' unconscious form, hoping it would bring him around. "Nothing will hurt you, not whilst I'm here."  
Gabe laid down and placed Cas' head carefully onto his chest, a calming gesture for the both of them.

When Cas was a fledgling in Heaven he would always seek out the sound of Gabriel's grace that swam beneath the vessel that he had at the time.  
Like a heartbeat to a human baby.

Both lay in that position for a long while, one couldn't move and one decided not to.  
"Cassie," Gabe said, breaking the silence. "I should have been protecting you... And for leaving you, I'm sorry."


End file.
